“The question he asks himself is one of those which do not even bear discussion. Whether he wants to or not, he must obey: that is to say he must torment his step-daughter into speaking. He decided to do so, urged on by the need to know the secret and grow rich, which once more invades his spirit. From that moment not a day passes without questionings, quarrels, and threats. There is a perpetual hunt through the thoughts and memories of the unfortunate girl. On this closed door, behind which, when quite a child, she has shut a little group of images and impressions, they knock more and more loudly. She wants to live: they do not allow it. She wants to amuse herself, and she does sometimes amuse herself, goes to the houses of a few friends, plays in private theatricals, sings. But, on her return home it is an unceasing martyrdom.
“A martyrdom to which is presently added a really odious circumstance, one I dread to recall: Bregeac’s love. Don’t let us speak of it. About that you know as much as I do, Marescal, since from the moment [[232]]you saw Aurelie d’Asteux there sprang up between you and Bregeac the ferocious hatred of two rivals in love.
“In that way it came about, little by little, that flight appeared to the victim as the only possible way of escape. She was encouraged to fly by a person whom Bregeac had to put up with, in spite of himself, William, the son of the last of his Cherbourg friends. Ancivel’s widow had been keeping him in reserve. He plays his part, in the shade up to this point, very cleverly, without awaking distrust. Guided by his mother, and knowing that Aurelie d’Asteux, on the day on which she shall love, will have full freedom to confide the secret to the fiancé she has chosen, he dreams of bringing her to love himself. He offers his help. He will escort her to the South whither, exactly at the right moment, his business calls him.
“The twenty-sixth of April comes.
“Observe carefully, Marescal, the situation of the actors in the drama at this date and the exact position of things. First of all there is Mademoiselle who is escaping from her prison. Happy at the thought of the liberty she is so soon to enjoy, she consents, on the last day, to have tea with her step-father at a confectioner’s on the Boulevard Haussmann. Bregeac is late. She has tea with some street urchins she has picked up, and comes out of the confectioner’s. Just outside she chances on you. There is a scene. Bregeac [[233]]takes her back home. She escapes and at the railway station joins William Ancivel.
“William has at the moment two affairs on hand: he is going to make Aurelie his; but at the same time he is going to commit a burglary at Nice, under the direction of the notorious Miss Bakersfield, of whose gang he is a member. It was in this way that the unfortunate English girl found herself caught up in a drama in which she did not herself play a part of any kind.
“Finally we have Jodot and the two brothers Loubeaux. These three have acted so cleverly that William and his mother do not know that they have reappeared and are competing with them. The three rogues have followed all William’s maneuvers; they know everything that is going on and being planned in Bregeac’s house; and they are on the spot on the twenty-sixth of April. Their plan is laid: they will carry off Aurelie and compel her to speak by any means to hand. That’s clear, isn’t it?”
He paused and looked round at their attentive faces.
Then he went on: “And now this is the real distribution of these persons on the express. Car number five: in the back compartment Miss Bakersfield and Baron de Limézy; in the front compartment Aurelie and William Ancivel. You quite understand, Marescal, in the front compartment, Aurelie and William, and not the two brothers Loubeaux, as one has [[234]]hitherto believed. The two brothers as well as Jodot are elsewhere. They are in car number four, your car, Marescal, well hidden in the darkness of the covered lamp and drawn curtains. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” said Marescal in a low voice.